The Time and the Place by Naguib Mahfouz And Other Stories

A collection of short stories by the author of "The Search", "Midaq Alley" and "Wedding Song". All but one of the stories are set in Cairo and they feature the denizens of the alleyways who struggle to survive their poverty, melancholy ruminations on death, and experiments with the supernatural.

NAGUIB MAHFOUZ was born in 1911 in the crowded Cairo district of Gamaliya. He studied philosophy at Cairo University, then worked in various government ministries until his retirement in 1971. His first three published novels were Khufu's Wisdom (1939), Rhadopis of Nubia (1943), and Thebes at War (1944), all of which are set in ancient Egypt. These political and philosophical critiques disguised as historical romances show the unmistakable signs of a burgeoning literary genius. He went on to write more than 35 other novel-length works, plus hundreds of short stories and numerous cinema plots and scenarios, many of which have been made into successful films. Naguib Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1988. In 2006, he died at the age of 95.
Denys Johnson-Davies has lived much of his life in the Middle East and has published fifteen volumes of modern Arabic literature. He lives in Cairo, Abu Dhabi, and Spain. Roger Allen is Professor of Arabic Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of "The Arabic Novel" (1994) and "Modern Arabic Literature" (1987).

Publishers Weekly

Variety is the keynote of these 20 fluently translated tales, which range from a Kafkaesque allegory of an apartment dweller's obsession with rodents (``The Norwegian Rat'') to the moving, passionately feminist ``The Answer Is No,'' about a teacher who chooses independence and self-respect over a...